Wolfgang Joop

Wolfgang Joop (born 18 November 1944) is a German fashion designer. He is the founder of the fashion and cosmetics company JOOP! as well as the fashion brand Wunderkind.

Early life

Joop was born in Potsdam to editor and author Gerhard Joop and his wife Charlotte. He grew up on his grandparents' farm in Bornstedt until 1954, when his family moved to Braunschweig, where his father had been hired as chief-editor of cultural magazine Westermanns Monatshefte. During the GDR period, Ulla Ebert, the sister of Joop's mother, lived in the property and was financially supported for its preservation by the family from the West. After the German reunification, Joop's parents moved back to Bornstedt.

After getting his Abitur in 1964 at the Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Braunschweig, Joop began studies in advertising-psychology in 1966 at the Braunschweig University of Technology, which he did not finish. After dropping out, he worked as a restorer. In 1968, he began studies in art education that he also did not finish.

Fashion career

Career beginnings

Joop began his career in 1970, when he took part to a competition by German women's magazine Constanze with his then-wife Karin Benatzky and they were awarded all three first prizes. This success landed him a job as fashion editor at the Hamburg-based women's magazine Neue Mode in 1970, from which he resigned in 1971 to continue working independently, including as a freelance journalist and designer.

Joop achieved international success in 1978 with his first fur collection. In 1985, he was invited to become a guest lecturer of fashion design at the University of the Arts in Berlin. He was made honorary professor in 1987.